The Google Campus

I wrote that I had spaghetti with mom and dad on the previous Thursday night.  I then watched a bunch of videos of Archer and mom took a nap in the Living Room.  I got up the next day at 730 and did my normal morning routine and made my way to the bike by 930.  I felt I had left late.  As I rode up Pacheco I discovered that the business analyst job I had heard about had called but I passed it up.

I climbed to 22nd and had to cool down at Stern Grove.  I walked across 19th and then rode Junipero Serra to BART.  I took it easy and caught the next train to Milbrea.  There I was a little lost and eventually discovered that I had missed the last train and would have to wait an hour.  I was really angry and rode across El Camino to a coffee shop where I thought I could get wifi but that didn’t happen.

I went to the El Camino bus stop and discovered that the bus was only four times an hour.  I gave up then and waited the hour.  My problem is that with a buffer of one and a half hours I could only afford one hic-up before I didn’t make it on time.  The train came a few tweets later and I secured my bike for the trip to CA Avenue.

Once there I rode CA, Cowper and Loma Verde to the slough and then there is a freeway underpass that connects to the Intuit campus.  I thought I was lost but it was easy to find the Google Campus.  There I asked for the main building and then found the bike stands.  Throughout there were affluent young professionals everywhere.  There were variously Asian and Caucasian but it was a world cast.  A lot of them seemed like H1B Visas.

I found the main building and checked in with Dominique at the front desk.  I sat in the lobby and got on the Wi-fi.  I turned off my devices as Alejandro entered the room.  He was dressed in a down jacket vest and had plugs in his ears.  He was wearing glasses, a beard and had an easy but business like demeanor.  He wasn’t a typical businessman—big blue type.

I got some water from the kitchen with him and we went into a conference room.  He basically asked about my job experience.  I started with the San Bruno incident and stopped at my experience with Recology.  He seemed keen on my experiences up to then.  I told him why I loved Geography.  I told him the story about the AAA maps that pops brought me as a kid and how that taught me what scale meant.  I talked about going to the high mountains as a kid with my uncle.

I went over MAOP and we got into my experiences as a coordinator and essentially said a GIS analyst is a coordinator and an administrative assistant.  I sort of was just glossing over a lot of stuff and until I sat down to write up these notes I hadn’t really thought about whether the interview had gone very well.  For the last 20 minutes I think we just did a rehash of the conversation.  When I wrote this I felt like there was a lot of stuff conveyed but didn’t really remember.  I also wrote that I talk too much and that there were a lot about academics that I could have done without.

Alejandro said that geography was unrepresented in the area that Google was involved but not anymore.  He also felt that I was going to be doing rote work.  We ran out of time and finished the interview in the hallway.  I wanted to get to know him but never cared to try.  I returned to the bike and rode back to Intuit.

I saw a Google bike there and left mine to ride it.  I had some contractor on his own Google bike to photo me.  I called G Security to have the bikes picked up.  I went to the bay marsh and stood and caught my breath.  There I discovered I still had wifi so I looked at the front entrance to the building I was near and discovered it was a Google-like daycare or residence.  The building was fully a mile from the campus.

I continued riding the same route back to the Caltrain station.  I followed the power lines a little bit.  Later I went to California Street on the west side of the station.  I explored the coffee shops and Radio Shack.  I discovered that Kathryn’s TV is not compatible with iOS.  I then went to Painters but had to use the Wi-Fi from the Nuthouse across the street.  I then rode across El Camino and through Stanford University and then caught an express train.

In SF I went to the Dogpatch Saloon and had a Junipero Martini.  It is good.  I then rode through the SOMA to meet Kathryn at the Flying Pig at 15th and South Van Ness.  Megan from APBP and Mike H, Gordon H, Sue McNulty, Steph and Jessica K were all there.  I think I met people named Drew and Alex too.  Eventually I fell into a conversation with Kathryn’s boss Jay.  He wanted to find out who I was.  I talk too much.  It felt like an interview.

Kathryn and I rode to Hayes Valley crossing Market at Octavia.  Shaun said he would meet us.  I had forgotten my bag though and made the circuit to get it and back.  In the meantime Kathryn ranted on FB about bad drivers.  We were going to go to get sushi but had a beer at Momi Toby’s and Place Pigale.  Eventually we had pizza at Patxi’s.  We then had more beer at Place Pigale.

Kathryn and I then went to McAlester and market.  At the China Town Gate some Range Rover turned into a problem for us.  Kathryn was pissed.  I noted that that night came in fits and starts.  I had trouble sleeping.  In the morning we went to Stella and Kathryn cleaned her room while I wrote in my notebook at Savoy Tivoli listening to Mal Sharpe.

This is series chronicles my life at regular intervals. This Memo series is meant to be a retrospective of what I have written and experienced. In each of these posts I use my notes in conjunction with memory, mementos and souvenirs to create a snap shot of my life.